


Sleepless

by YellowBananaOwl



Series: Fandot Creativity Night Ficlets [22]
Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 18:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3820963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowBananaOwl/pseuds/YellowBananaOwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Martin can't sleep...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleepless

**Author's Note:**

> Written during Creativity Night. Prompt: Blanket/alone  
> Characters owned by John Finnemore

Martin tiptoed to the closet and took out a blanket. He walked silently over to the window, wrapped the blanket around himself and sat down on the big windowsill. He looked out at the lights of New York city. It was really a pretty sight. A lot of cars were moving below him, and Martin smiled when he saw several yellow taxis. He remembered his first trip to New York with MJN, when Arthur had become short of breath during their taxi ride from Newark and to their crappy hotel. It was after that trip, Douglas and Carolyn had finally convinced Arthur that taxis weren't normal cars and therefore didn't count. He looked fondly at the sleeping figure in the other bed and grinned. 

"Yellow car," he whispered, even if it didn't really count.

Arthur shifted and mumbled something inaudible before he started snoring lightly again.

Martin sighed. Sharing a room with Arthur had started to become torture to him. In the beginning, Douglas and he had often fought over the single room, and Martin had almost always lost, so he had basically been sharing a room with Arthur for years. However, after a while he stopped feeling annoyed by this, and after another while, he was actually starting to enjoy it. It was something familiar and safe to share a room with Arthur. They had found their own routines with the bathroom sharing and their regular 30 minutes of TV watching where Arthur always tried to find out what they were watching no matter what language it was in. Martin was deeply impressed by Arthur's imagination and he had a lot of fun listening to his cracky ideas about what was going on. It usually included aliens or dinosaurs, or sometimes both.

It was nice to be with Arthur. A bit _too_ nice, actually. Martin looked towards the beds again. He didn't know when or how it had happened, but he had definitely fallen in love with the steward. And now, sharing a room with him had become difficult and awkward, and Martin had found it impossible to sleep whenever they shared a room. He longed for some alone-time and some sleep, but mostly he longed to be able to tell Arthur, and to be with him. But he couldn't. It would ruin MJN. It would be a disaster. Right?

Arthur shifted again, but this time he opened his eyes and looked at Martin.

"Skip? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," lied Martin.

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Too many coffees, I guess."

Arthur sat up. "But you didn't have any coffees. I know, because I didn't make any. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep."

"No, you're not. Because you do this every night. Do you ever sleep? Is it my snoring?"

"No, it isn't, Arthur. Don't worry. Just go back to sleep."

Arthur didn't go back to sleep. Instead he got out of bed and decided to join Martin in the window.

Martin's body tensed as Arthur's thigh met his. 

"Are you cold?" Arthur asked when he felt Martin's body stiffen. "Is that why you have the blanket?"

"No, I just like blankets."

"Oh me too," Arthur agreed. "Blankets are brilliant."

Martin chuckled. "They really are."

"Can we share your blanket, Skip?" Arthur asked. 

Martin froze. "Wh-wh-what?"

"I was just wondering if I could share your blanket with you. I could go and get my duvet, but it's so big and lumpy I think it will take up too much room, and I am a bit cold.

"I-I-I-" Martin stammered. 

"It's okay, Skip. You don't have to." Arthur said, with obvious disappointment in his voice. 

Martin lifted the blanket and gestured for Arthur to join him under it. He tensed even harder when Arthur shifted closer and wrapped the blanket around them.

"Skip, are you mad at me?"

"Arthur, why? Of course not! Why do you think that?"

"You don't seem to like to be around me anymore. I mean, we haven't played 'spot the bad guy' or 'guess the plot' in weeks. And I really miss that."

Martin swallowed a lump in his throat. He couldn't take it if Arthur walked around thinking he didn't like him. Martin _did_ like him. A lot! That was the problem. 

"If you want to, I can ask Mum to share with Douglas from now on. So you can be alone and get some sleep." Arthur sounded genuinely upset. 

"It's not that, Arthur," Martin said. "It's just hard to explain, but you haven't done anything wrong."

"Really?" Arthur said and smiled vaguely. "You don't have to explain if you don't want to. Mum's told me to not bother people when they don't want to talk about things. She's been very clear about that. But I like sharing a room with you, because you're brilliant and you're fun to be around. I mean, Douglas is great too, of course, but he's not _you_."

Martin looked confusedly at the other man. Arthur was blushing slightly. 

"I couldn't stand it if you were mad at me, Skip."

"I'm not mad, Arthur."

"Because I like you."

Martin didn't know what to say, but simply looked at the steward. He wanted to tell Arthur everything, but surely Arthur hadn't meant it like _that_. Arthur just likes everybody. That's just how Arthur works.

Arthur looked back at him. "I really like you, Skip," he whispered. "I don't expect anything back, I just wanted you to know that. You're the most brilliant person I know."

"Arthur, I -" Martin started, but didn't know how to finish the sentence, so instead he leaned over and kissed Arthur gently.

His lips lingered on Arthur's for a while before he slowly withdrew to his previous position.

"Wow, Skip," Arthur gasped. "That was..."

"Brilliant?"

"Yeah!"

Martin felt Arthur's hand grab his under the blanket and give it a tiny squeeze. Neither of them let go. Arthur's head dropped onto Martin's shoulder and Martin sighed with relief and finally let his body relax. 

Neither of them spoke for a long while, but just looked out at the city.

"Yell – oh never mind."

Martin smiled. "It's okay, you can say it. I did, before you woke up."

"Really?" Arthur beamed. 

"Go ahead, I know you want to."

"Yellow car."


End file.
